Blog Stats

What was the more impressive individual accomplishment of the I-75 League’s 36th season: Was it Jake Odirizzi’s 0.45 ERA for Michigan, or Emilio Bonifacio’s 1.13 hits allowed per nine innings for Destin/Bushwood?

Considering Bonifacio is a position player, you gotta give him the edge. Bonus points for pitching 4101 (and one-third) innings this year.

Wha-a-a-a-a-t???

Yes, through some statistical glitch that we’ve yet to figure out, our official league stats show those individual accomplishments for 2015. Odirizzi will no doubt take issue with any selection giving Bonifacio an edge over him, considering Odirizzi struck out 3,999 batters, somewhat obliterating the major league record of 383 (Nolan Ryan, 1973). No, we did not accidentally type an extra 9. He was one shy of 4,000.

But there is no shortage of legitimate, yet amazing statistics from the recently concluded regular season. Let us look back at them, one per team:

Applegate — The Clips stacked their lineup with plus-clutch hitter after plus-clutch hitter. Michael Brantley, Justin Turner, Russell Martin, all plus-8 against righties. Hunter Pence, plus-7. What did that get them? Seven clutch hits all year. The league average was 5.13. MYSTIFYING!!!

Boulder — Bunting isn’t just the stuff they drape from the upper deck on opening day, you know. But the Tree Huggers may not be aware. They dropped down only 12 sac bunt attempts the entire year (successful 11 times), fewest in the league. But beyond that, the THs had no interest in issuing IBBs, intentionally walking just 2 batters the entire season. INCOMPREHENSIBLE!!!

Bushwood — The Gophers managed to collect 29 hits this season off of pitchers who has fallen into endurance — nearly twice as many as any other team. STUPENDOUS!!!

Chatfield — Maybe this explains the Choo-Choos’ 9-11 October: Even with a 37-man roster, Chatfield was consumed by trying not to exceed player limits. No less than nine — 9! — of their pitchers finished with exactly 100% of their innings allotment. Three more pitchers had less than an inning to spare. BONKERS!!!

Destin — Yadier Molina may have only hit 7 homers in real life, but it’s 7 more than he hit in a similar at-bat total for the Beach Bums. AMAZEBALLS!!!

Hickory — Nelson Cruz and Travis D’Arnaud finished tied for the team lead in homers with 17. That’s not the odd part. In real life, with at-bat totals very near to their replay totals, Cruz mashed 40 homers, and D’Arnaud 13. THAT’S JUST NUTS!!!

Margaritaville — The Volcanoes had a respectable offense, sitting in the middle of the pack in team batting average, but oh, that pitching staff in that ballpark… league-worst ERA (5.04), hits allowed, runs allowed and opponents’ batting average (.283). The worst of the worst was Ervin Santana, who was trotted out to the mound 28 times and came away with wins on just four occasions. He gave up 218 hits and 117 earned runs in 168 innings for a 6.24 ERA and a 1.78 WHIP. RIDICULOUS!!!

Michigan — The Moneyballers played 52 one-run games, most in the league, and won 34 of them, also tops in the league, yet failed to play .500 ball overall (76-84). MIND BLOWING!!!

Michigan (BONUS) — The Moneyballers’ 97 homers is the fewest by any team in league history, beating the only other club to fail to get 100, the 1981 Mennen Speedsticks, by one. UN-FREAKIN’-BELIEVABLE!!!

Savannah — David Ortiz took full advantage of a new rule implemented for the 2015 season. Whereas before, a player with less than 550 at-bats would have been limited, Ortiz (at 518) became unlimited because his plate-appearances total cleared 600. So after belting 35 homers in real-life, Ortiz blasted a league-leading 46 moonshots for the Scorpions, playing in 159 games. REMARKABLE!!!

South Grand Prairie — When did Carlos Santana become Adam Dunn? For the Warriors this year, although he had 25 homers and 85 RBI, Santana walked a league-high 109 times, but whiffed 140 times and batted just .198. PREPOSTEROUS!!!

Springfield — Did you see the stats put up by Buddy Carlyle this year for the Isotopes? In 25 innings pitched, he allowed SIX HITS! SIX! He walked seven for a dizzying 0.51 WHIP, and gave up one run in 21 games for a 0.36 ERA. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!!!

Superior — The Titans finished with the league’s seventh-best record at 79-81. They scored 49 more runs than they allowed, usually an indication of a winning record. Their 3.54 ERA was fourth-best in the league. Against 13 of their 14 opponents, they had a record of 78-67 (.537). One miserable mark against one foe kept them out of the playoffs: Mike Renbarger went 1-14 against brother Dave’s Bushwood Gophers. UNTHINKABLE!!!

Wisconsin — Evan Longoria hit 25 homers for the Warhawks, three more than in real life. But he did it in 260 fewer at-bats! NONSENSICAL!!!